Mastering Amazon: Dominating Share of Voice and Boosting Sales
Many advertisers place heavy emphasis on efficiency related metrics (e.g. ACoS and ROAS) as their primary, or only focus in their Amazon Ad strategy. However, in doing so, you may be overlooking metrics like Share of Voice (SOV) as a viable tactic in dominating your space and boosting sales within your category.
At ZEAL, we’ve managed millions in ad spend across Amazon, Google, and Meta, consistently delivering exceptional results. Want to see how we can do the same for your brand? Learn more about our services here.
What is SOV Domination?
Share of Voice (SOV) is the percentage of ad impressions or overall visibility your brand or product has relative to your competitors on particular keywords, in a particular category on Amazon. SOV domination involves focusing ad efforts on maximising this visibility to ensure your brand is appearing consistently in search results, on product pages and across placements, both sponsored and organic.
Dominating SOV typically involves prioritising high-volume and high-conversion keywords or categories and investing in those areas to outrank your competition. On the other hand, having an efficiency focus consists of minimising wasted ad spend through calculated refinements of bids relative to sales volume and conversions. Although SOV domination can sometimes be more expensive, it certainly has its benefits and should be considered as a joint focus area with efficiency.
While efficiency focuses mostly on cost-effective PPC ads, SOV helps drive long-term growth by building brand recognition and capturing customer attention. A joint approach can lead to higher conversions, increased sales velocity and of course, influencing and supporting strong organic rankings.
Why is SOV a viable strategy in your Amazon Advertising?
Increasing Visibility: Higher SOV % means your products appear more frequently, which increases likelihood of clicks from shoppers.
Competitive Advantage: Dominating SOV can help push competitor ad’s down the search results page, or out of critical TOS spots, enabling you to capture more traffic.
Higher Conversions: Consistently serving in high-traffic areas such as top category terms or highly ranking competitor PDPs can lead to higher conversions, due to more frequent exposure to potential buyers.
Brand Awareness: Repeated visibility boosts your brand recognition and general awareness, especially for new to brand (NTB) customers. This is key in building trust in your category.
Efficiency: Rather than spreading budget across an excessive amount of keywords and categories, a focus on key areas can support improved ROI by targeting the most relevant and highest converting potential traffic.
Now we know why SOV is a high potential PPC strategy, let’s go through 10 tactics to engage with this mentality in your Amazon advertising strategy.
10 Tactics for SOV Domination
Focus on high converting keywords: Research and target the most relevant, highest converting keywords related to your particular product(s). Refer to Amazon’s search frequency rank (SFR) to gain insight into high volume terms.
Bid aggressively: Ensure you are bidding high enough on critical terms, and consider TOS multipliers to secure the best placements.
Target competitors: Through something Amazon calls “dark search”, you can target competitor ASINs and also target the search terms they rank highly on. Set up PAT campaigns targeting key competitors to take advantage of this.
Activate all ad types: Incorporate Sponsored Brands ads in your Amazon PPC for top of search (TOS) placements and visibility, especially for branded keywords to build brand presence. Use Sponsored Display ads targeting competitor product pages and relevant categories to syphon traffic away from your competitors brands.
Leverage Automatic targeting: Use Auto campaigns and Amazon’s automatic targeting features (such as Close Match, Loose Match) to identify potentially profitable keywords you may not have previously considered.
Test and optimise: Continuous analysis of your performance is key in understanding what works, and knowing when to pivot when you aren’t seeing results. Adjust bids, keywords and placements to ensure optimal performance and SOV in your PPC.
Consider long-tail keywords: Combine high-volume with long-tail keywords that may be less competitive but still drive significant traffic.
Optimise your PDPs: Ensure your PDPs are Amazon SEO optimised with relevant titles, descriptions and high quality imagery so they convert better when customers land on your page after clicking your ad.
Don't go dark: Make sure your campaigns are not running out of budget too early in the day to maintain visibility throughout high traffic hours. Dayparting tactics can support this e.g. reducing bids during sleeping hours such as 12am - 4am.
Beyond PPC: where budgets allow and if your products are mature and highly converting, you can consider other avenues beyond PPC to take up as much SOV. Amazon’s Demand Side Platform (DSP) for example allows you to run highly targeted and customised display ads across both Amazon-owned placements and external websites. It allows you to retarget shoppers more specifically and take up space in areas outside of typical PPC placements.
By dominating key search terms and ad placements, your brand can capture a larger share of customer attention, leading to higher conversions, greater brand recognition, and increased sales velocity. SOV domination not only helps push competitors out of high-traffic spots but also drives long-term growth, making it a powerful strategy for you and your brand in scaling growth and outperforming rivals.
Want to know more about how to up your Amazon PPC game with a SOV strategy? Get in touch with us at zeal@zealagency.co.uk or at www.zealagency.co.uk.
